tony

Any experience using BA Club Lounge at Chicago when flying Qatar J? Qatar Airways website states that J passengers use Air France/KLM lounge. Technically, I should have access but I have heard that BA doesn't allow Qatar Airways J passengers in due to capacity limits? Any truth to this?

toastedcafe

If you are OW sapphire or emerald you can use the lounge. If you have no status you must use the lounge provided my QR.

MKE-MR

I've been turned away as Emerald as well flying QR J. This lounge is somewhat notorious for not following oneworld admission rules.

NoY

You are missing nothing at the BA Lounge - it's old, windowless & somewhat depressing. The AF/KLM lounge isn't much better but at least has windows/natural light! Get to the airport as late as reasonably possible & find a decent spot to hang out in the terminal, if indeed are there any at ORD. What a dump!

arabiamark

And that goes double for the First class side (which you should get as an Emerald). Although it has windows it's quite small. To be fair, there are times when they have legitimate capacity issues. What gets me is that it seems to be an 'all time time policy.' Even when the lounge is empty, the next BA flight is some hours away, and I only need to stay for less than an hour they're still extremely reluctant to honor OW rules.

NoY

I was refused access to the BA F Lounge ("cupboard" is perhaps more accurate) when holding a CX F ticket & being BA Gold/Emerald...

SirToby

Wow, they do not even allow their own Golds in?
I was hoping to do that as I will have the same combination (CX F + BA Gold) coming up in April.

NoY

It wasn't busy either. The "dragon" was positively curt, borderline rude too . Seriously its a pretty crap airport for lounges - get there just in time & grab a coffee/drink elsewhere.

trooper

Maybe for OW. The UA Polaris Lounge was a huge and pleasant surprise for a USA located facility!

arabiamark

It's definitely not an ideal lounge situation, especially in T5. If you're connecting from a domestic flight from elsewhere in the US you will come out airside in T1,2 or 3. In T3 you can access the AA Flagship Lounge, which is decent as far as US carrier lounges go. I don't know how it compares to Polaris. If your origin is ORD then you won't have a boarding pass for a flight from T3. These days that seems to be ok. Numerous reports are saying that any boarding pass can get you into any terminal. The question will be how much trouble you will want to go to just for a lounge (Check in at T5, bus to T3 because the train isn't working yet, Flagship Lounge, then airside bus from T3 to T5). You would have to decide if it's worth it.

itsmeitisss

Could be something to do with sleeper flights and meals that are served in place of a meal on board, hence needing to be a ticketholder for that class lounge. As a Gold travelling in Club, I was able to use the F lounge but had to eat in the J lounge when I last dd a flight from ORD which was quite some time ago.

AlexanderK

ORD T5 is indeed a dump! The new global terminal can’t come soon enough. AA flagship lounge in T3 Is excellent if you’re willing to jump through the hoops

marlib

Polaris lounge is way better than AA flagship, but it's also been a few years since I've been in the Polaris lounge.

We did KLM lounge on our outbound and AA flagship inbound and KLM was nothing special but at least they had real food so was a step up from a standard lounge.

DMPHL

Strange that they would deny access when it's not busy, as the BA lounges at ORD are the designated lounges for CX F/OWE and J/OWS passengers. At least they were when I flew a year and half ago as an OWE in J, and was denied access to both the F and J lounges because they were at capacity. The CX staff arranged for me (and a couple other passengers) to access the AF/KLM lounge. Meh.

qrpcflyer

Also second this. ORD lounges at T5 are abysmal. Would recommend using the AA flagship then leave the flagship a tad early to get to T5 using the post-security transfer bus from T3 to T5. It's like a 5 minute walk from Flagship to the transfer bus, 5 minutes to T5 (if the bus left, you might have to wait another 10-15 min)